1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a door mirror and a vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus applied to a vehicle such as a passenger vehicle, lorry (truck) or bus or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-16181 (JP-A-2000-16181) describes a vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus which aims to help prevent a wheel of a vehicle from falling into a ditch or gutter when pulling off to the side of the road, as well as help prevent the rear wheel from riding up onto a kerb (curb) of a pavement (sidewalk) when making a left turn by enabling a driver to see an area that is out of view (i.e., a blind spot) on the passenger's side of the vehicle. This apparatus includes a camera that is pointed downward, provided on the passenger's side door mirror, and has a protruding portion that is formed extending out from in front, with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, of the camera to prevent dirt from adhering to the lens of the camera.
However, even though the protruding portion of this kind of vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus prevents water droplets that run down the front side of the door mirror from the upper side of the door mirror surface toward the lens of the camera from reaching the lens, it is unable to prevent water droplets that run down the side, with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, of the door mirror from the upper side of the door mirror surface toward the lens of the camera from reaching the lens. As a result, water droplets that run from the upper side of the door mirror surface down the side of the door mirror toward the lens of the camera end up adhering to the lens of the camera, where they distort the image captured by the camera, and as a result, the driver is unable to see the area that is out of view (i.e., the blind spot) on the passenger's side of the vehicle.